UC-NRLF 


F3 


HOT  23  W* 

The  Drexel  Institute 

MONOGRAPHS 


WHAT  ABOUT  PROGRESS? 

AN  ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE 
ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE  SPRING  CELEBRATION,  1916 

BY 

R.  A.  FALCONER,  D.Litt.,  LL.D.,  C.M.G. 

President  of  the  University  of  Toronto 


PHILADELPHIA 

THIRTY-SECOND  AND  CHESTNUT  STREETS 
1916 


Fa 


» 


WHAT  ABOUT  PROGRESS  ?:: 


AN  ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE 
ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THE  SPRING  CELEBRATION,  1916 


BY 


R.  A.  FALCONER,  D.Litt.,  LL.D.,  C.M.G. 

President  of  the  University  of  Toronto 


"Blow  Gtit,  you  bugles  >  over  the  rich  Dead ! 
1  There's* none  of  these  so  lonely  and  poor  of  old. 
But,  dyingy  has  made  us  rarer  gifts  than  gold'' 

— Rupert  Brooke. 


WHAT  ABOUT  PROGRESS? 


One  of  the  most  dominant  convictions  of  the  era  in  West- 
ern civilization  which  has  just  closed  was  that  Progress  is  a 
justifiable  conception.  The  average  man,  especially  of  the 
New  World,  was  persuaded  that  this  age  had  made  progress 
beyond  all  other  ages,  and  that  our  future  was  assured.  He 
took  for  granted  that  by  reason  of  the  inherent  powers  of 
Democracy  and  the  immense  natural  resources  of  this 
continent  we  were  bound  to  reach  a  position  of  pre-eminence 
such  as  no  other  period  of  the  world's  history  had  seen. 
Accordingly  institutions  and  individuals  were  judged  by  a 
supposedly  progressive  standard.  A  man  and  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lives  must  be  progressive,  a  business 
must  be  progressive,  so  also  the  University  as  the  director 
of  organized  knowledge.  Very  few,  I  imagine,  had  defined 
their  terms,  and  when  you  asked  this  modern  man  what  he 
meant  by  Progress,  he  would  in  all  likelihood  give  you  a 
vague  and  quite  insufficient  reply  in  terms  of  material 
development  and  the  application  of  science  to  industry. 

This  complacent  state  of  mind  prevailed  up  till  August, 
1914,  but  in  that  month  a  hurricane  smote  Western  civili- 
zation, and  ever  since,  the  comfortable  home  that  we  had 
reared  for  ourselves  out  of  our  axioms,  opinions,  and 
assumptions  has  been  swaying  so  violently  that  broad 
fissures  are  appearing  in  its  walls,  and  we  are  often  fear- 
ful lest  we  shall  have  to  abandon  our  former  domicile. 
Small  wonder,  indeed,  is  it  that  the  dogma  is  crumbling, 
for  if  you  seek  the  manifestations  of  progress  mainly  in  the 
accomplishments  of  science,  nowhere  will  you  find  such 
marvelous  results  as  in  the  superb  instruments  of  modern 
war — artillery,  aeroplanes,  superdreadnaughts,  submarines; 
and  yet  these  are  being  used  to^destroy  with  unprecedented 
slaughter  millions  of  the  most  civilized  men  of  Europe  at 
the  most  hopeful  and  productive  age  of  their  life.  We 
may  well  ask,  Does  Progress  mark  the  history  of  man? 


789263 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS 


Progress  Not       ^  'ls  <luite  conceivable  that   our  conviction   as   to  the 
universal       reality  of  Progress  may  spring  from  temperamental  optimism 
occasioned  partly  by  climate,  partly  by  the  extraordinary 
discoveries  of  this  New  World,  partly  by  the  energies  of 
/  youth.     There  have  been  great  eras  of  the  world's  history 
in  which  there  was  no  belief  in  Progress.     There  are  peoples 
now  to  whom  the  idea  is  strange.     China  and  large  portions 
of  India  would  hardly  understand  the  term.     Some  philoso- 
.phies  have  been  constructed  on  a  pessimistic  basis;   others 
I  have  assumed  tharX  there  are  cycles  in  the  world's  history  in 
I  the  regular  return  of  which  man's  experience  repeats  itself. 
^    If  we  are  to  get  a  satisfactory  answer  to  our  question  as 
to  the  reality  of  Progress  we  must  not  fix  our  glance  upon  the 
present  age  alone  nor  base  our  judgment  solely  upon  the 
depressing  conditions  of  to-day.     Fortunately  .the. ,.study-  -G£ 
history  has  made  great  advance,  partly  through  the  practice 
of  scientific  method,  partly  by  reason  of  the  unearthing  or 
discovery  of  records  of  the  past;  and  a  wide  survey  of  the 
course  of  human  life  over  great  stretches  of  time,  though  with 
large  gaps,  has  become  possible.     This  survey.does  not  reveal  j 
uniform  and  unbroken  advance,  but  it  does  show. on  the  whole 
a  rise  in  standards  of  living  and  their  extension,  increasing 
comprehension  by  man  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  greater 
control  of  her  powers,  i  To  assume,  however,  from  this  course 
of  history   that  Progress   attends   the   years   of  maturing 
humanity  would  be  to  give  the  term  an  external  definition, 
as  we  have  seen  is  ordinarily  done  by  the  average  man. 
We  should  still  ask,  Is  there  any  goal  in  sight?     If  so,  what 
is  its  character? 

i.     HISTORY  OF  THE  IDEA 

p1**"-, 

When  did  men  begin  to  think  about  Progress  ?  How 
did  they  define  it?  Reflection  upon  an  idea  comes  late  in 
its  history.  There  must  be  periods  of  actual  advancement 
before  men  set  themselves  to  ask  what  constitutes  develop- 
ment. So  it  came  to  pass  that  continued  reflection  upon  the 
idea  of  Progress  is  quite  recent,  but  it  was  prepared  for  by 
great  happenings.  If  we  trace  its  rudimentary  beginnings 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS  5 

and  then  outline  briefly  the  steps  in  modern  European 
civilization  that  created  the  new  world  in  which  the  idea 
sprang  into  full  being,  we  shall  more  clearly  grasp  its  import. 

As  for  so  much  that  is  most  enduring  in  civilization  we 
must  turn  to  the  ancient  Greeks  for  the_Qrigitts»~  "Greece  in  Greece 
first  took  up  the  task  of  equipping  man  with  all  that  fits 
him  for  civil  life  and  promotes  his  secular  well-being:  of 
unfolding  and  expanding  every  inborn  faculty  and  energy, 
bodily  and  mental:  of  striving  restlessly  after  the  perfection 
of  the  whole,  and  in  finding  this  effort  after  an  unattainable 
ideal  that  by  which  man  becomes  like  unto  the  gods."* 

Though  both  the  idea  and  the  fact  of  Progress  are  "far- 
off  workings"  from  Greece  it  was  not  a  motive  force  even 
in  the  classic  age,  for  ancient  Athens,  suffused  with  melan- 
choly as  she  looked  upon  the  fleeting  shadows  of  the  present, 
cast  her  glance  backward  for  the  golden  age.  It  was  a 
shortlived  era,  that  classic  time,  and  after  the  conquests  of 
Alexander  a  wearied  and  disappointed  society  began  to  lose 
confidence  in  its  own  powers,  the  sceptic  came  on  the  scene, 
and  earnest  minds  turned  to  Oriental  mysteries  or  to  a  hope 
of  revelations  from  another  realm  than  this. 

Greece  yielded  to  imperial  Rome,  often  less  human  than   contribution 
i  •  •   **  j  i        i        /•  11     of  Bome 

the  captive  Greece  who  conquered  her,  but  far  more  able 

to  understand  and  rule  humanity.  In  the  Roman  Empire 
law  was  supreme.  The  individual  had  to  submit  himself  to 
the  policy  of  the  state,  which,  was  regulated  not  by  the 
opinions  of  individual  localities,  but  by  imperial  decree. 
In  addition  to  this,  philosophical  ideas  as  to  the  brother- 
hood of  man  gained  currency  in  Rome  as  they  never  had  in 
Greece,  and  the  Stoicism  of  the  Empire  broadened  out  its 
ideal  until  in  many  cultivated  circles  a  conception  of  uni- 
versal brotherhood  prevailed.  Though  this  conception  was 
not  realized — indeed,  was  for  the  most  part  a  pathetic  aspi- 
ration,— it  prepared  the  way  for  what  came  to  pass  in  Chris- 
tianity. Within  the  Roman  Empire  freedom  grew  less  and 

less,  economic  and  social  causes  induced  decay,  and  with  the? 

i 

*Butcher,  Aspects  of  Greek  Genius,  P.  41. 


6  THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS 

irruption  of  Northern  peoples  the  old  Roman  Empire 
lost  its  vitality,  and  a  new  phase  of  human  history 
appeared. 

Stive  we?1        Long  before  this,  Jesus  had  sown  the  seed  of  a  new  life 
m  Galilee  and  His  disciples  had  scattered  it  over  the  world. 


But  so  far  from  Progress.,  being  ojiejDfj^hg  .regulative  ideals, 
of  the  Gospel,  the  elirTy  Christian  would  not  have  understood 
what  we  mean  by  the  term.  His  hope  was  fixed  upon  the 
coming  of  his  Lord  and  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which  was  im- 
minent and  would  bring  with  it  the  dissolution  of  the  present 
order  and  translation  into  a  new  state.  Men  were  to  pre- 
pare themselves  for  that  Day  which  cometh  as  a  thief  in  the 
night.  They  were  to  make  haste  to  proclaim  its  advent, 
and  to  spread  the  Gospel  far  and  wide  in  the  time  at  their 
disposal.  Signs  of  change  were  all  about  them.  Things 
were  being  shaken.  Only  the  eternal  unseen  Kingdom  would 
remain.  Therefore  in  the  first  two  centuries  they  gave  little 
heed  to  art,  literature,  economic  conditions,  and  that  aspect 
of  human  life  which  we  call  civilization.  Nevertheless 
"^the  essential  element  of  Progress  is  found  in  the  Christian 
proclamation  of  the  worth  iihumaaJife^  and  the  apostle 
Paul  comes  near  the  root  of  the  matter  when  he  writes 
to  the  Philippians,  "Whatsoever  things  are  true,  what- 
soever things  are  honorable,  whatsoever  things  are  just, 
whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are 
lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report,  if  there 
be  any  virtue,  or  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these 
things."J 
J?6*?"?11  of  We  may  pass  over  the  intervening  centuries  that  elapsed 

the  Modern       tr  yr,  ,,  c?1.1          v\      •  i  • 

world  before  our  modern  world  came  to  its  birth.     During  this 

period  new  ideas  were  maturing,  new  inventions  were 
devised,  new  discoveries  made.  Not  the  least  absorbing 
chapter  of  European  life  is  the  story  of  human  freedom, 
intellectual  and  political.  It  is  a  sad  story,  with  many 
cruelties  and  much  fruitless  effort,  but  also  full  of  heroic 
and  on  the  whole  successful  endeavor.  Far  back  in  1395 
the  Scots  poet,  John  Barbour,  glowed  with  the  thought  of 
what  freedom  brings: 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS  7 

A!  Fredome  is  a  noble  thing! 
Fredome  mays  man  to  haif  liking; 
Fredome  all  solace  to  man  giffis, 
He  lives  at  ese  that  frely  livis! 
A  noble  hart  may  haif  nane  ese, 
Na  ellys  mocht  that  may  him  plese, 
Gif  fredome  fail'th. 

Feudalism  decayed,  new  nations  were  formed,  men  of  domi- 
nant character  and  genius  replaced  the  old  barons  in  strong 
cities,  the  individual  got  recognition.  .Democracy  like  a 
new  land  of  hope  was  sighted  as  a  dim  cloud  on  the  horizon. 

The  invention  of  the  printing-press  was  an  event  of 
supreme  importance.  Henceforth  the  ideas  of  the  solitary 
thinker  were  carried  far  and  wide  on  the  printed  page  and 
they  became  enriched  as  they  passed  through  many  minds. 

Moved  with  curiosity  and  inspired  by  a,n  awakening  £fseco°vfery 
courage  men  peered  out  of  their  narrow  environment  into 
the  unknown  beyond.  A  race  of  brave  pioneers  began  to 
assert  their  right  to  control  the  powers  of  nature  and 
they  ventured  forth  on  the  ocean,  the  successors  of  the 
"grave  Tyrian  Trader"  who 

Snatch'd  his  rudder,  and  shook  out  more  sail; 

And  day  and  night  held  on  indignantly 

O'er  the  blue  Midland  waters  with  the  gale, 

Betwixt  the  Syrtes  and  soft  Sicily, 

To  where  the  Atlantic  raves 

Outside  the  Western  straits;   and  unbent  sails 

There,  where  down  cloudy  cliffs,  through  sheets  of  foam, 

Shy  trafficers,  the  dark  Iberians  come; 

And  on  the  beach  undid  his  corded  bales." 

Man's  daring  spirit  awoke  in  this  Age  of  Discovery. 
Columbus,  the  supereminent,  burst  into  the  solitude  of  the 
Western  Ocean  and  turned  thither  the  trend  of  exploration. 
Vasco  di  Gama  rounded  the  Cape  and  went  to  India; 
Magellan  entered  the  Pacific.  There  followed  a  great  race  of 
sailors  whose  familiarity  with  the  ocean  in  all  its  moods 


8  THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS 

dispelled  fear.  They  knew  something  of  what  lay  beyond; 
they  used  the  fickle  winds,  and  when  neither  sun  nor  stars 
appeared  for  many  days  they  went  by  dead  reckoning. 
Man,  greatly  venturesome,  was  asserting  his  mastery  as  he 
has  continued  to  do  until  the  present,  and  now  there  is  no 
region  of  the  world  into  which  he  has  not  penetrated;  he 
has  discovered  the  secrets  even  of  the  poles.  Nor  should 
we  judge  him  in  this  to  be  rashly  and  aimlessly  heroic,  for 
he  is  giving  proof  of  his  indomitable  resolve  to  comprehend 
to  the  uttermost  this  sphere  on  which  his  lot  is  cast. 

The  discoveries  of  the  explorer  have  always  kindled 
the  imagination  of  the  statesman,  the  man  of  commerce 
or  the  scientist.  Especially  was  this  so  when  the  extent  of 
the  New  World  began  to  appear.  A  new  impulse  was  im- 
parted to  man's  sense  of  power.  He  dreamed  of  possible 
conquests  and  of  an  undefiled  home  for  the  freedom  which 
had  received  so  niggardly  a  welcome  when  it  presented  itself 
for  recognition  in  the  old  world  of  Europe;  his  horizon  wid- 
ened, his  vision  of  the  future  brightened. 

So  much  for  the  awakening  of  man's  spirit.  But  he  soon 
undertook  also  to  think  out  and  to  express  the  meaning  of 
this  activity.  And  thinkers  in  the  long  run  rule  the  world, 
for  "ideas  are  the  chief  agitators." 

progress  France-  is  the  home  of  the  modern  conception  of  progress 

Formulated  35  areffnlq<'*w  Hpa  of  civilization  and  human  history.  Like 
a  flash  from  a  lighthouse  below  the  horizon-line  these  words 
are  found  in  Pascal  in  the  iyth  century:  "Those  whom  we 
call  the  ancients  were  really  those  who  lived  in  the  youth 
of  the  world,  and  the  true  infancy  of  man;  and  as  we  have 
added  the  experience  of  the  ages  between  us  and  them  to 
what  they  knew,  it  is  only  in  ourselves  that  is  to  be  found 
that  antiquity  which  we  venerate  in  others."  Then  came 
on  the  outwardly  brilliant  age  of  Louis  XIV — a  period 
of  incubation  for  the  idea  of  progress.  Society  underwent 
rapid  change;  religion  fell  into  contempt,  supernatural 
sanctions  lost  their  power,  men  discovered  law  in  the 
material  universe  and  substituted  reason  for  faith.  Con- 
comitantly  with  this,  tradition  was  scorned  and  the  founda- 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS  9 

tion  slipped  from  under  the  old  structure  of  conduct.  Start- 
ing from  the  view  that  nature  is  a  unity  and  intelligible, 
Fontenelle  and  Leibnitz  compared  the  movement  of  human- 
ity in  history  with  "the  great  and  universal  movement  which 
dominates  nature";  but  they  thought  of  this  Progress  of 
the  race  as  coming  with  painful  steps  and  slow.* 
TThe  greatest  names  in  the  formulation  of  this  modern 
idea  are  those  of  Turgot  and  Condorcet.  They  made  popu- 
lar the  thought  of  the  endless  progress  of  the  human  racel  h 
on  this  earth,  a  limitless  intellectual,  moral,  and  phyjsical 
advancement  which  can  be  retarded  only  by  ignorancejfrom 
reaching  its  goal  of  perfection^  "All  epochs  are  fastened 
together  by  a  sequence  of  causes  and  effects  linking  the  condi- 
tion of  the  world  to  all  the  conditions  that  have  gone  before 
it  ...  and  the  human  race,  observed  from  its  first  beginning 
seems  in  the  eye  of  the  philosopher  to  be  one  vast  whole 
which  like  each  individual  in  it  has  its  infancy  and  its 
growth."*  *  TThis  progress  of  man  or  his  march  towards 
perfection  was  to  be  seen  in  "the  gradual  evolution  and 
elevation  ~6T  man'jTnature  as  ajyhqlej  _the  enlightenment  of 
his  intelligence,  the  expansion  and  purification  of  his  feel- 
ings, the  amelioration  of  his  worldly  lot,  and  in  a  word, 
the  spread  of  truth,  virtue,  liberty,  and  comfort,  more  and 
more  among  all  classes  of  men."  f  It  was  brought  about, 
according  to  Turgot,  by  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  in  the 
power  of  which  he  had  supreme  confidence.  These  ideas 
were  adopted  and  cleveloped  by  Condorcet  who  also  held 
that  ignorance  was  'the  only  barrier  to  the  realization  of  the 
perfectibility  of  the  raceA 

This  idea  appealed  to  the  imagination  of  men,  and  with 
good  reason,  for  it  is  a  fascinating  discovery  if  we  can  trace 
from  the  dawn  of  history  an  ever  widening  and  deepening 
stream  of  life,  here  deviating  round  an  obstacle,  there  driven 
back  upon  itself  by  some  barrier  only  in  the  end  to  surmount 
it,  until  finally  it  is  lost  in  the  ocean  of  human  perfection 


*See  Brunetiere,  La  Formation  de  I'idee  de  Progres  au  XVIII  Sitcle.  Etudes  critiques  V. 

**John  Morley,  Miscellanies  II,  p.  96. 

fFlint,  History  of  Philosophy  of  History,  p.  282. 


io         THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS 

from  which  the  brooding  clouds  of  ignorance  have  been  dis- 
sipated. Nor  need  we  question  the  worth  of  the  idea 
because  it  was  late  in  coming  into  vogue.  Experience  may 
prove  that  the  longer  the  mind  of  man  dwells  upon  it  the 
more  intrinsically  probable  it  will  become.  But  it  is  to  be 
remarked  that  however  valid  the  conception  of  the  per- 
fectibility of  the  human  race  on  this  earth  may  be,  its 
essence  cannot  be  interpreted,  as  Turgot  and  Condorcet 
thought,  to  reside  merely  in  the  advance  of  intelligence. 
No  further  proof  of  this  is  necessary  than  the  present  war 
/among  the  most  intelligent  peoples  of  the  world.  We 
hardly  needed  this  reminder,  for  it  has  been  a  commonplace 
that  great  intellectual  attainment  may  lower  instead  of 
heightening  sympathy  and  may  blind  its  possessor  to  simple 
but  universal  feelings  and  emotions  which  unite  society  and 
create  character. 

"Knowledge  comes  but  wisdom  lingers." 

The  optimism      The    nineteenth    century    was    one    of  the  greatest  in 
of  the  history.     It  was  full  of  optimism,  and  well  it  might  be,  for 

Nineteenth  1 .,  ,  ,  .  r.      ......  ,  ,  ,  . 

century  insignificant  though  each  individual  is,  man  has  asserted  his 
mastery  over  nature  as  never  before,  has  learned  to  dread 
her  less  in  her  most  awful  moods,  has  essayed  and  accom- 
plished tasks  which  a  few  generations  ago  would  have  seemed 
to  be  miraculous.  Indeed  the  Greeks  would  have  feared 
that  this  mastery  bordered  on  the  impious,  and  that  piercing 
through  mountains  and  plunging  into  the  depths,  man  would 
bring  upon  himself  such  ruin  as  fell  upon  Xerxes  for  his  in- 
solence in  encroaching  upon  the  domain  of  the  gods  by 
bridging  the  Hellespont.  (  What  cannot  man  attain  unto? 
He  has  made  the  earth  to  shrink,  has  lessened  time,  has 
|/  unearthed  the  past,  has  dissipated  mysteries  and  is  endeavor- 
ing to  take  from  death  itself  the  terror  that  has  always 
invested  it.  This  optimism  reinforcing  belief  in  "verifiable" 
progress,  to  use  Bagehot's  expression,*  has  been  heightened 
by  the  promulgation  of  the  biological  law  of  evolution,  a 


*See  Physics  and  Politics. 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS          11 

scientific  hypothesis  of  almost  universal  acceptance  which 
in  its  realm  seems  to  run  parallel  with  the  idea  of  progress  Evolution 
in  the  moral  and  historical  domain  of  human  life.  Under 
the  impulse  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  men  looked  into  the 
future  with  great  expectation.  Metchnikoff  went  so  far 
as  to  say  that  "old  age  is  a  form  of  disease  or  is  due  to  disease 
and  theoretically  at  least  is  capable  of  being  eliminated." 
Though  not  accepting  this  view  Sir  Edward  Schaefer  fore- 
casts the  possibility  of  the  dawn  of  a  day  when  man  will 
have  learned  to  regard  the  coming  of  death  as  "a  simple 
physiological  process  as  natural  as  the  oncoming  of  sleep 
.  .  .  and  the  sunshine  which  science  irradiates  may  eventu- 
ally put  to  flight  the  melancholy  which  hovers,  bat-like, 
over  the  termination  of  our  lives/'* 

2.     Is  THE  IDEA  OF  PROGRESS  VALID  ? 

Ours  has  been  an  optimistic  era,  a  confident  age,  a  hopeful  y" 
period  on  which  the  idea  of  Progress  shone  like  a  fixed 
luminary.  But  may  it  be  that  the  clouds  now  gathered  will 
cast  such  gloom  upon  the  world  that  the  new  age  will  become 
one  of  profound  pessimism  ?  We  have  gone  on  lengthening 
life  on  the  assumption  that  it  is  intrinsically  valuable. 
Possibly  the  woes  of  the  present  war  will  blight  the  flower 
of  our  idealism  like  a  late  frost  and  ruin  the  hopes  of  fruit. 
Why  believe  with  the  physiologist  that  we  may  lengthen  life 
and  regard  its  close  with  reasoned  equanimity  when  science 
shall  have  dissolved  its  mystery,  if  the  quality  of  that  life  is 
poorer?  Mere  lengthening  of  years  is  not  of  the  essence  of 
progress.  \Recently  a  writer  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes 
stated  thatin  France  men  are  now  looking  upon  death  reason-  1 

ably  because  the  sorrow  of  life  has  been  so  immeasurably  in-  *  ' 

creased  by  this  war  that  death  affords  a  welcome  escape  from 
itsjanxieties,  sufferings,  and  tears.  (Lucretius  expresses  the 
mood  especially  well.  In  the  last  generation,  this  writer 
avers,  when  life  was  comfortable  the  average  person  feared 
death)  He  put  it  from  him  as  an  ugly  dream.  From  the 

^Presidential  Address  before  the  British  Association^  1912. 


12         THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS 


Evolution 
and  Progress 
Different 
Conceptions 


Provisional 
Definition 
of  Progress 


ice-bound  barrier  of  death  a  chilling  wind  blew  and  men 
sought  to  escape  it  by  living  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  hill, 
believing  that  when  evening  fell  they  would  go  out  into  a 
raw  night  without  stars.  JBut  the  war  has  changed  all  that. 
Death  now  offers  an  escape  from  a  vale  of  woe.? 

I  have  dwelt  upon  these  contrasted  views  because  I" 
desire  to  emphasize  the  fact  thal^volution  and  progress  are 
not  the  same.  The  latter  concerns  the  intrinsic  value  of 
the  life  we  possess.  Progress  is  not  to  be  narrowly  defined 
in  terms  of  material  well-being  or  of  the  growth  of  scientific' 
knowledge  and  its  applications  to  the  external  equipment  ojf 

tthe  human  race.  It  is  determined  by  the  essential  quality^ 
and  worth  of  the  ideals  that  man  sets  before  himself,  by  the 
measure  in  which  he  realizes  them  and  by  the  harmony  that 
this  accomplishment  induces  both  in  himself  and  in  the 
society  of  which  he  is  a  member.,.  Huxley  defined  the  law  of 
external  nature,  which  he  read  in  terms  of  the  doctrine  of" 
evolution,  as  "the  cosmic  process";  translated  into  the 
moral  domain  it  was  "the  self-assertion,  the  unscrupulous 
seizing  upon  all  that  can  be  grasped,  the  tenacious  holding 
of  all  that  can  be  kept,  which  constitute  the  struggle  for 
existence."*  But  he  also  recognized  in  human  life  the 
"ethical  process  which  checks  the  cosmic  process  at  every 
step."  By  the  potency  of  this  "ethical  process"  Huxley 
would  estimate  the  real  progress  of  humanity.  "Social 
progress  means  a  checking  of  the  cosmic  process  at  every 
step  and  the  substitution  for  it  of  another,  which  may  be 
called  the  ethical  process;  the  end  of  which  is  not  the  sur- 
vival of  those  who  may  happen  to  be  the  fittest  in  respect 
of  the  whole  of  the  conditions  which  obtain*  but  of  those  who 
are  ethically  the  best."** 

Adopting  these  terms  that  Huxley  has  coined  we  may 
make  a  working  definition  for  ourselves — Progress  is  to  be 
measured  by  the  relative  proportion  of  "the  ethical  process" 
to  "the  cosmic  process"  at  any  definite  stage  of  the  world's 


1 


*  Evolution  and  Ethics,  1903  p.  51 
**0p.  cit.,  p.  8 1. 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS          13      / 

history.     It  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  rationality  of  life 
rather  than  by  the  length  of  days. 

But  is  it  not  the  Ironic  Spirit  that  prompts  us  if  we 
speak  at  such  a  time  as  this  of  Progress  in  other  terms 
than  those  of  "reeking  tube  and  iron  shard  ?"  Have  our 
fine  dreams  that  we  spun  before  1914  all  been  shot  away? 
When  we  come  to  grips  not  with  nightmares  which  vanish 
but  with  horrible  realities  that  clutch  us  in  open  daylight, 
are  we  likely  to  sink  into  pessimism  and  think  that  the 
late-comer  "Progress"  is  a  delusion?  That  were,  I  believe, 
too  doleful  a  view.  We  have  been  chastened,  however,  checks  to 
and  have  grown  less  confident  as  to  the  triumphant  advance  °Ptimism 
of  the  human  race  over  all  obstacles  to  the  goal  of  its  per- 
fection. The  future  of  mankind  is  shrouded  in  mystery. 
Foul  weather  has  succeeded  fair  days  with  disconcerting 
suddenness,  and  we  have  no  grounds  for  assuming  that  this 
is  the  last  storm  that  will  snap  off  fruit  and  branches  from 
our  civilization.  Even  in  this  Western  world  we  are  not 
in  the  mood  to-day  to  indulge  as  optimistically  as  before  the 
anticipations  of  the  French  theorists  as  to  the  indefinite 
perfectibility  of  the  human  species  on  this  earth. 

Nor  does  Christianity  itself  compel  us  to  adopt  such 
a  theory.  In  the  parable  of  the  Sower,  Jesus  sets  forth  the 
different  kinds  of  soil  on  which  the  seed  of  His  Gospel  will 
fall.  There  is  the  hard  beaten  track  through  the  corn-field 
from  which  the  birds  pick  off  the  grains,  the  thin  soil  on  an 
underlying  rocky  bed,  ground  that  is  not  clean,  and  good 
ground  that  yields  in  abundance.  By  the  use  of  this  parable 
Jesus  warns  His  disciples  against  undue  enthusiasm.  He 
interprets  thereby  the  quality  of  their  environment,  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  He  would  take  a  similar  view 
of  the  modern  world,  for  that  relation  of  soils  and  seed  illus- 
trates the  response  to  moral  issues  ordinarily  given  by  the 
average  society  of  to-day.  Only  a  portion  of  the  world  lives 
and  probably  always  will  live  by  the  ideal.  It  is  true  that 
the  parables  of  the  Mustard  Seed  and  the  Seed  growing 
through  all  its  stages — blade,  ear,  full  corn  in  the  ear- 
indicate  His  expectation  that  His  Kingdom  would  grow  to 


Evil  Results 
of  the 
Present 
Distress 


14         THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS 

such  proportions  as  to  draw  the  children  of  men  from 
everywhere  to  its  protecting  shade,  but  He  fixed  His 
view  also  upon  another  world  as  the  final  realm  of  His 
Kingdom. 

Though  our  safest  method  is  to  take  short  views,  there 
are  still  good  reasons  for  tracing  an  upward  path  even 
in  and  through  the  present  agony.  Progress  in  the  past  has 
not  had  free  course.  There  have  been  many  set-backs, 
and  if  at  present  we  are  perplexed  we  need  not  swing  from 
buoyancy  into  hopelessness.  It  is  an  ancient  experience  of 
our  race  that  the  finest  virtues  are  often  tempered  in  the 
furnace  of  suffering.  It  behooves  us,  however,  to  consider 
both  the  evils  and  the  possible  good  that  face  us  in  the  pres- 
ent distress. 

One  of  the  most  obvious  of  these  evils  is  the  rift  in  Western 
civilization,  the  snapping  of  sympathy  which  like  a  wire 
should  carry  intelligent  messages  from  nation  to  nation; 
and  alas!  it  will  long  be  dissevered.  An  irreparable  loss  this, 
because  civilization  is  enriched  by  the  unique  ideas  that 
come  and  go  between  each  nation  and  race,  and  if  these 
do  not  interchange  in  free  intercourse  the  isolation  of  the 
people  affects  injuriously  what  should  be  a  common  posses- 
sion of  mankind.  Nor  is  it  a  certainty  that  the  unselfish 
emotions  which  have  been  called  forth  in  the  belligerent 
nations  will  be  maintained,  for  the  loss  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  the  idealistic  youth  of  the  world  is  in  itself  a 
serious  drain  on  its  moral  resources. 

There  is  also  a  profound  feeling  of  insecurity  abroad. 
We  have  discovered  with  a  great  shock  that  the  world  is  not 
nearly  so  honest  as  we  had  supposed  it  to  be;  nations  have 
suddenly  come  to  trust  one  another  less  than  they  did; 
and  your  President  has  found  it  necessary  to  ask  you  to 
protect  yourselves  against  the  possibility  of  aggressiveness. 
In  the  society  of  mankind  weapons  must  be  carried  for 
defence  as  men  carried  them  in  pioneer  days  on  this  conti- 
nent or  in  mediaeval  Europe.  For  a  time  at  least  the  year 
1916  has  plunged  us  into  a  less  hopeful  condition  than 
existed  in  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century. 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS          15 

It  may  be  also  that  when  the  war  is  over  such  an  impetus 
will  have  been  given  to  technical  efficiency  that  the  world 
will  be  turned  into  a  huge  workshop.     Should  the  immedi-  \ 
ate   future  be  absorbed  in  the  replenishing  of  diminished  I 
stocks,   the  capture  of  new  markets,  and  the  acquisition  ;jj  L^ 
of  commerce,  we  may  readily  fall  into  the  disastrous  but  easy  r 
habit  of  measuring  Progress  once  again  in  terms  of  mere' 
industrial  success. 

To  redress  the  balance  these  considerations  are  to  be  set  Reasons  for 
in  the  opposite  scale.  Awful  though  the  agony  of  Europe 
is,  there  are  certain  advantages  that  will  result  from  its 
being  so  long  protracted.  Great  moral  and  social  changes, 
if  they  come  without  revolution  and  are  to  be  permanent, 
require  time  for  their  comprehension,  and  the  months  or 
years  of  enforced  cooperation  between  various  grades  of 
society  in  the  prosecution  of  a  common  patriotism  will 
create  a  new  mutual  understanding  in  each  belligerent 
nation,  especially  those  that  are  victors.  Burning  questions 
will  have  cooled  off.  A  universal  sacrifice  will  have  pro- 
duced a  common  sympathy,  and  this  sacrifice  may  win  what 
legislation  never  would  have  secured.  In  the  future  there 
will  be  fewer  joltings  of  the  social  machine  because  it  will 
have  been  placed  on  new  bearings.  The  world  will  have 
won  a  new  admiration  for  the  heroic,  for  public  service,  for 
sacrifice;  a  new  spirit  of  generosity  will  have  been  evoked, 
and  enforced  economy,  at  least  in  some  countries,  may 
usher  in  days  of  simplicity  in  which  for  a  time  homely 
virtues  will  thrive. 

Assuredly  the  youth  of  the  .countries  that  I  know  best  A  Sch°o1 

.    .J          !     :  .  ,     of  Discipline 

are  receiving  their  education  in  an  unprecedented  school 
of  discipline.  The  curious  searcher  into  theories  is  bustled 
aside  by  the  eager  man  who  is  intent  upon  discovering  his 
immediate  duty  in  a  world  of  hard  realities.  Old  prejudices 
are  giving  way  in  the  strain  that  has  been  put  upon  them  and 
the  younger  generation  are  throwing  from. them  many  broken 
dogmas.  They  are  making  for  themselves  their  own  theories 
and  discovering  their  own  principles  at  a  time  when  they 
cannot  be  satisfied  with  conventional  doctrines.  On  the 


1 6         THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE  MONOGRAPHS 

youth  of  the  present  the  end  of  one  age  has  come  crashing 
down,  and,  as  it  happened  after  the  French  Revolution  so 
it  may  happen  soon  again,  they  will  not  debate  curiously 
how  true  the  old  dogmas  have  been  but  whether  they  are 
strong  enough  to  build  a  new  society  with.  This  genera- 
tion at  least  will  be  sincere.  They  are  realizing  an  ethical 
purpose  by  incessant  effort,  and  in  this  lies  the  most 
certain  hope  of  Progress,  for  it  is  not  transmitted  by  mere 
sequence  of  events  from  fathers  to  languid  sons  with  a  rich 
inheritance,  but  it  is  a  possession  of  those  who  for  them- 
selves lay  the  foundations  anew  by  hard  work  on  a  solid  rock. 
Democracy  has  not  yet  fully  justified  itself.  Many  who 
have  rested  their  hopes  upon  it  have  become  disillusioned. 
They  see  less  freedom  of  thought  than  they  had  hoped  for: 
majorities  disregard  minorities;  corporations  have  no 
souls;  labor  unions  cow  the  individual;  beauty  is  too  often 
scorned;  the  gentler  virtues  wither  amidst  materialistic 
selfishness.  But  there  is  reason  to  hope  that  in  the  furnace 
of  this  world-disaster  many  inveterate  evils  will  perish  and 
that  virtues  will  be  tempered  as  fine  instruments  for  prun- 

rank  or  spurious  growths. 

hough  I  have  never  been  able  to  persuade  myself  that 
Progress  is  so  assured  that  we  may  with  certainty  look 
forward  to  the  age  when  evil  will  have  righted  itself  and  the 
world  will  be  converted  into  a  Paradise  by  the  mere  march 
of  events,  or  that  the  ultimate  goal  of  our  species  is  a  per- 
fected race  on  this  earth  as  the  French  philosophers 
dreamed,  yet  even  through  our  great  agony  we  get  glimpses 
of  sunshine  which  promise  a  brighter  day  for  those  who  will 
succeed  us. 

"We  men,  who  in  our  morn  of  youth  defied v 
The  elements,  must  vanish — be  it  so! 
Enough,  if  something  from  our  hands  have  power 
To  live,  and  act,  and  serve  the  future  hour; 
And  if,  as  towards  the  silent  tomb  we  go, 
Through  love,  through  hope  and  faith's  trans- 
cendent dower, 
We  feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we  know." 


Jng  : 

^   .  — SEW 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


LD  21A-40m-ll,'63 
(E1602slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


7RANKLIN     PRINTING    COMF 
PHILADELPHIA 


